Organic Brands And Their Challenges

“Gaining visibility in the world of textiles is a challenge. Retaining weavers to work regular working hours on ever-changing and evolving designs with fine yarn is a challenge,” says Vijayalakshmi (Viji) Chinnaswamy, co-founder of the weaving studio of Ethicus talking about the difficulties that traditional and sustainable brands face.

In an interview in The Hindu, Viji says that with Ethicus, they want to bring a change in the society. But it was an uphill task right from the beginning; from persuading farmers and weavers to telling the consumers about the benefits of hand woven product.

“Deciding to build an ethical fashion brand is a challenge. No shop wanted to sell our label. No shop was willing to buy the product outright. No one seemed to care about organic farming, sustainable development or ecology. But most challenging of all was convincing the farmer and the weaver that they were important, and instilling in them a sense of self-worth,” she adds.